July
20 - First stage for man and country, Astana &
Vino back on track, Hincapie comments on Astana move, Evans hones in on TT,
No chasse-patate for Millar, Stage 11 post-race quotes, Schleck owes
one to Arvesen

July 18
- Demol Disco boys on the attack, Soler solos to special win, Riders reflect
on a memorable day, O'Grady on his accident, Carlström keeping a low profile,
Quickstep's Barredo waiting for Spanish run, Penalties all around

July
15 - Seven a lucky number for T-Mobile, Valverde
wants to drop Vino, Popovych has freedom, How the Australians fared, More
Tour reactions, Bottom drops out for Freire, Nuyens making it through Tour

Recently on Cyclingnews.com

94th Tour de France - ProT

France, July 7-29, 2007

Wide-open Tour prepares to depart London

For the first year, the Tour de France Grand Départ will have no
rider wearing the dossard 1 number of the previous year's champion, no
clear favourite for the overall win, and a challenging parcours that will likely
leave the general classification wide open until the penultimate stage. Cyclingnews'
Laura Weislo tips the favourites and a few who could surprise in this year's
Tour.

Coming into the second year of the post-Lance Armstrong era, no single rider
has donned the iron gauntlet of domination that Armstrong employed. Floyd Landis'
feel-good Hollywood comeback story turned horror-show doping case of last year
is still unresolved on the eve of the Tour. Instead, over the last year, the
sport has been cleaning house in the wake of Operación Puerto.

Gone from Le Tour is Ivan Basso who admitted his 'intent' to blood dope for
last year's Tour. Likewise for Jan Ullrich, who remained quiet but was betrayed
by his own DNA and retired. Also taking a back seat in this year's race will
be CSC Manager Bjarne Riis,
who admitted to using EPO to win the 1996 Tour and was guilted into stepping
back. Out is green jersey hope Alessandro Petacchi, who used too
much asthma medication in the Giro and is facing a possible one-year ban.

What we are left with is a seemingly level playing field, which will make for
another exciting and unpredictable Tour. In last year's race, a poker game between
the teams let a break take nearly 30 minutes on stage
13, giving Oscar Pereiro the yellow jersey he'd hold until the second to
last stage time trial - and he still has a chance to get it back one year later.

With Pereiro unlikely to be given another 30-minute buffer, the favourites
for this year's Tour can be drawn from the top of last year's heap with few
exceptions. The main exception is Alexandre Vinokourov, who missed out on the
2006 Tour because of Liberty Seguros née Astana links to Operación
Puerto via Directeur Sportif Manolo Saiz.

With that behind him, Vinokourov comes to this year's event as a top pick with
a ridiculously strong Astana team. 'Vino' is the designated co-captain with
last year's second placed Tour finisher Andreas Klöden, with additional support
coming from two-time Giro d'Italia winner Paolo Savoldelli and Dauphiné Libéré
third place fisher Alexander Kashechkin. Should Vinokourov crack spectacularly
in the mountains as he did in the Dauphiné, the boys in teal blue will have
Klöden as a backup and 'Kash' and 'Il Falco' as dark horses for the overall.

Contrasting with the bright colours of Astana is the subdued black and red
of Alejandro Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne team. Always tipped as a favourite,
Valverde has yet to finish a Tour de France. His punchy style in the mountains
could very well earn him another stage win to go along with his 2005-mountain
top win ahead of Armstrong in
Courchevel, but he has yet to demonstrate the type of consistency in a Tour
de France that took him to second place in the 2006
Vuelta a España.

Australian hopeful Cadel
Evans showed solid form at the Dauphiné Libéré where he finished a close
second to Christophe
Moreau. If Evans can hone his time trialling form to keep the likes of Vinokourov
on a tighter leash, and find a bit of fire in his belly for the demanding ascents
of the Pyrénées, Australian fans could see their first countryman on the podium
in Paris.

Speaking of Christophe Moreau, the 36 year-old is having a renaissance this
year. His time trialling at the
Dauphiné was passable, but he rode the mountains like a man inspired. His
gutsy move on stage two was more reminiscent of Vinokourov than Moreau, and
his victory at Mont Ventoux was simply magnificent. Although the Astana team
came unglued and gave up its GC hopes in favour of stage wins, Moreau deserved
the overall victory in the Dauphiné; however, the recently crowned French Champion
cannot bet on Astana unraveling in the Tour.

Few can deny that the Pyrénées will hold the decisive stage of this year's
Tour. Freed from the shackles of his former super-domestique role for Ivan Basso,
Carlos Sastre will have to take advantage of the three mountaintop finishes:
first at Tignes in the Alps,
but more importantly at Plateau
de Beille and stage 16's Col
d'Aubisque to put big time into rivals who are more gifted at the time trials
in order to gain a spot on the podium. Sastre, who tilts a bit more toward being
a pure climber than a GC leader, could also take advantage of the steep, narrow
slopes of the newest climb of the Tour, the Port
de Balès, to put a dent in the armour of his competitors on stage 15.

Another rider freed from service to Ivan Basso is Tour of California champion
Levi Leipheimer. The American Tour hopeful will have a powerful Discovery Channel
team behind him, but Leipheimer has a tendency to have at least one horrible
day in any stage race. He has to give up his habit of cracking in the mountains
so that he can let his brilliant time trialling ability shine.

Finally, Rabobank's Denis Menchov is often overlooked, but has managed to quietly
get into the top five of Grand Tours and become virtual champion of the Vuelta
(after Roberto Heras' EPO positive of 2005) without ever being considered a
top contender by the pundits. Menchov is tough to dislodge in the mountains,
and is solid in the time trials.